Woman dies after being 'broadsided' by fleeing driver

A 19-year-old Detroit woman died Sunday night after being hit by a vehicle fleeing from a Warren police officer, police said.

The pursuit began about 7:50 p.m. in the area of Eight Mile and Fairfield, said Warren Police Commissioner Bill Dwyer. An officer noticed a 1989 green Ford Taurus traveling at a high rate of speed and tried to initiate a traffic stop.

Rather than stop, the driver, a 28-year-old Detroit woman, kept driving, disregarding the officer's lights and sirens and a number of stop signs.

But "this was not your typical high-speed chase," Dwyer said, maintaining that speeds never reached about 50 mph.

At some point during the chase, the officer backed off, but the Taurus kept on driving, eventually "broadsiding" a 1998 Nissan Sentra south of Eight Mile in Detroit, Dwyer said. A 15-year-old Detroit girl was also in the Nissan with the 19-year-old who was killed.

The 19-year-old driver was transported to St. John Hospital on Moross, but died from her injuries.

After the crash, the 28-year-old woman tried to flee on foot, Dwyer said, but she was arrested a short time later. She, too, had to be transported to the hospital, where she remains in police custody.

The suspect is on probation in Macomb County and has a felony warrant for her arrest for fleeing and eluding. Dwyer said police found what they believe to be crack cocaine in the woman's vehicle.

The Detroit Police Department's fatal squad will investigate the crash.